it got me thinking about the economy. can we afford all these days off and how does america compare with the rest of the country? they rank countries. the data confirms a number of commonly held stereotypes and there are a few surprises. take a look. top of the list is united kingdom with 28 statutory holidays. nine of the top ten countries are, of course, in europe who live adulce vida. scroll down further and the list continues to be dominated by european countries. 20 days off for the germans, irish and italians, then come a bunch of latin american countries and the asian wings, hong kong, and singapore and where is the u.s.? dead last. zero statutory holidays. that's because federal holiday does not mandate paid time for work. americans are allowed 15 working days off a year. pretty close to the bottom of the list. what's more, only about half of the americans take their full vacation off. europeans once again have no such qualms, but let's go back to columbus day. these are days when government offices and banks are